Week 13
Steps Ten & Eleven
Week number 13. I will now read steps 10 and 11 followed by pages 84 to 88 "Into Action."
Step 10: Continue to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
We have entered the world of the Spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for a lifetime.
Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code.
We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities. "How can I best serve thee? Thy will, not mine, be done." These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. We can exercise our will-power along this line all we wish. It is the proper use of the will.
If we have carefully followed directions, we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us. To some extent we have become God-conscious. We have begun to develop this vital sixth sense. But we must go further, and that means more action. Continue to take personal inventory, many times each day, and to set right any new mistakes as we go along. (Pages 84 to 85)
Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Step 11 suggests prayer and meditation. We shouldn't be shy on this matter of prayer. Better men than we are using it constantly. It works if we have the proper attitude and work at it.
The Nightly Review (Page 86)
When we retire at night, we constructively review our day. Remember, we read this every night:
Was I angry or resentful today?
Was I selfish today?
Was I dishonest today?
Was I afraid today?
Do I owe an apology today?
Was I kind and loving toward all today?
Have I kept something to myself that should be discussed with another person at once?
Was I thinking of myself most of the time? Or was I thinking of what I could do for others, of what I could pack into the stream of life today?
Did I drift into worry, remorse, or morbid reflections of the past today?
After making our review, have I asked God's forgiveness? Have I inquired what corrective measures should be taken?
The Morning Meditation (Pages 86–88)
On awakening, let us think about the 24 hours ahead. We consider our plans for the day. Remember, we read this every morning. We ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest, or self-seeking motives. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought, or a decision. We relax and take it easy. We don't struggle.
We usually conclude the period of meditation with a prayer that we be shown all through the day what our next step is to be, that we be given whatever we need to take care of such problems. We ask especially for freedom from self-will and are careful to make no requests for ourselves only. We are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends.
Throughout the Day
As we go through the day, we pause when agitated or doubtful and ask for the right thought or action. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day, "Thy will be done."
It works. It really does. We alcoholics are undisciplined, so we let God discipline us in the simple way we have just outlined. But this is not all. There is action and more action. Faith without works is dead. The next chapter, Chapter 7, "Working with Others" (pages 89 through 103), is entirely devoted to Step 12.
Detailed Study: Pages 84 to 88
This thought brings us to Step 10, which suggests we continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. We vigorously commence this way of living as we cleaned up the past. We have entered the world of the spirit. Our next function is to grow in understanding and effectiveness. This is not an overnight matter. It should continue for our lifetime.
Continue to watch for selfishness, dishonesty, resentment, and fear. When these crop up, we ask God at once to remove them. We discuss them with someone immediately, and make amends quickly if we have harmed anyone. Then we resolutely turn our thoughts to someone we can help. Love and tolerance of others is our code.
And we have ceased fighting anything or anyone, even alcohol, for by this time sanity will have returned. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. We react sanely and normally. And we will find that this has happened automatically. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes. That is the miracle of it.
We are not fighting it. Neither are we avoiding temptation. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality, safe and protected. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. We are neither cocky nor afraid. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition.
It is easy to let up on the spiritual program of action and rest on our laurels. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. We are not cured of alcoholism. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities.
Much has already been said about receiving strength, inspiration, and direction from Him who has all knowledge and power. If we have carefully followed directions, we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us. To some extent, we have become God-conscious. We've begun to develop this vital sixth sense, but we must go further, and that means more action.
Step 11 suggests prayer and meditation. It would be easy to be vague about this matter, yet we believe we can make some definite and valuable suggestions. Under these conditions, we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all, God gave us brains to use. Our thought life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives.
In thinking about our day, we may face indecision. We may not be able to determine which course to take. Here we ask God for inspiration, an intuitive thought, or a decision. We're often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while. What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind.
Being still inexperienced and having just made conscious contact with God, it is not probable that we're going to be inspired at all times. We might pay for this presumption in all sorts of absurd actions and ideas. Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. We come to rely upon it.
If circumstances warrant, we ask our wives or friends to join us in morning meditation. If we belong to a religious denomination which requires definite morning devotion, we attend to that also. If not members of religious bodies, we sometimes select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the principles we have been discussing. There are many helpful books also. Suggestions about these may be obtained from one's priest, minister, or rabbi. Be quick to see where religious people are right. Make use of what they offer.
We become much more efficient. We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves. It works. It really does.
Homework
Reread: Pages 84 to 88.
Next Reading: Pages 89 to 103, "Working with Others."
Assignment: Pass out Step 12 questionnaire and complete with a member of the group prior to next week's meeting.
Daily Discipline: Read pages 86, 87, and 88 every morning and night. Try to do what it says.
Daily Readings